Andre Agassi to dedicate Rocketship's second Nashville school

Andre Agassi and State Rep. Harold Love Jr. joke with students before the grand opening of Rocketship Education's Nashville Northeast Elementary charter school on Dickerson Pike on Sept. 16, 2014. Agassi is a partner in a group that bankrolls the construction of charter school buildings.(Photo: File / John Partipilo / The Tennessean)Buy Photo

Andre Agassi is again headed to Nashville to dedicate a Rocketship Education charter school.

The more than $7 million, 37,000-square-foot Rocketship United Academy, built through a fund created by the former tennis star and his business partner Bobby Turner, opened this year and serves 375 students in grades K-4. The dedication ceremony will be held 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the new building on 320 Plus Park Boulevard, according to a news release.

The similarly-sized Rocketship Nashville Northeast Elementary, opened last year on Dickerson Pike, also cost about $7 million.

Both buildings were financed by the Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund, a for-profit business that buys the property, builds the building and then rents to a charter school operator. Eventually, the charter rents to own the school property.

The Turner-Agassi business takes a market-driven approach to helping build schools and has bankrolled numerous charter school buildings across the country. For-profit charters are prohibited in Tennessee, but by paying the capital costs upfront, Agassi and Turner are able to make a profit by managing the land. The two call the model "profit for a cause."

Critics of the model have worried that the business is trying to profit off Nashville's children.

Agassi told The Tennessean last year his group helps charter operators build to the size and the scale of need. Operators wouldn't partner with his group if they were just landlords, he added.

The California-based Rocketship Education charter operator has taken an aggressive approach to expanding its national network. Rocketship officials have an eye to open more Nashville schools and are petitioning the state to reverse a decision by Metro Schools not to allow the operator to open a new school.

The Dickerson Pike school saw high growth from year-to-year among its students, but lagged in achievement measures in its first year. Rocketship officials point to the growth as reason for optimism, but Metro Schools has opted to employ a wait-and-see approach.

Rocketship uses a similar teaching model nationwide and the Nashville locations operate much like their sister schools. The schools use a learning model that blends traditional instruction with the heavy use of technology to monitor student progress.